Publishers Weekly's whole purpose is to sell books. That's all. It has no exclusivity.

A good review in PW is not significant as a mark of greatness, or merely of quality. A starred review means it's something that the publishing industry thinks will be popular, not an intellectual watershed.

If that gushing review had appeared in the NYT Review of Books, NRO would have been right -- well, they're always right, even when they're wrong... NRO would have been correct to be concerned.

The equivalent of this situation would be for NRO to announce that infant obesity is an epidemic based on the photo of the 200 lb. baby on the front page of the Weekly World News.

That PW reviewer did something remarkable: he or she took a book whose topic is marginal at best and turned it into something that an average person might remember and even pick up to look at in a book store. Curiosity leads to sales. This book needs all the help it can get from a sales point of view, considering its subject, and sales are what PW is all about.

I consult PW to find out what's being published that week, and what the industry will push. For suggestions on what would be a worthy addition to the collection, I use other, more discerning review tools.